Baltimore shipping channel reopens after bridge collapse

It took more than 2,000 people working for nearly 11 weeks, but the main shipping channel into the Port of Baltimore, which had been clogged by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, has fully reopened.

In announcing the restoration of the channel on June 10, officials with the US Army Corps of Engineers said a survey of the site confirmed that the channel was safe for transit at its original depth of 15m.

"We are proud of the unified efforts that fully reopened the federal channel to port operations," Lieutenant-General Scott Spellmon, commanding general of the Corps, said in a statement.

The 213m-wide channel, known as the Fort McHenry Federal Channel, in the Patapsco River, had not been fully accessible to ships since the Dali, a Singaporeflagged container ship as long as the height of the Eiffel Tower, lost power and slammed into the Key Bridge on March 26, causing the bridge to collapse and killing six men working on it.